Category Archives for "Podcast"

FTP, VO2max and VLaMax: what triathletes need to know with Sebastian Weber | EP#169

Sebastian Weber is a sports scientist and highly successful coach, in both professional sports (having worked with athletes like Peter Sagan, Tony Martin, and André Greipek) and with age-group endurance athletes. He is also the co-founder of the physiological performance software INSCYD. One of the important factors for his success is his knowledge about exercise physiology and metabolism. Today, he shares this knowledge with us so that you too can benefit from it and become a faster triathlete.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What is FTP (Functional Threshold Power), why does it even exist, and how can you train to improve it?
• The only two variables that can be changed to improve FTP: VO2max (Aerobic Capacity) and VLaMax (glycolytic capacity).
• Why you need to focus on changing VO2max and/or VLaMax, and NOT FTP itself, if you want to improve your FTP.
• How to train to increase VO2max to increase FTP.
• How to train to decrease VLaMax to increase FTP.
• How VO2max and VLaMax determine your fat and carb oxidation at any intensity (including submaximal intensities)

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Triathlon training and performance for elite and age-group athletes with Barb Lindquist | EP#168

Barb Lindquist is a US Olympian and the World #1 ranked triathlete from 2003-2004. After retiring from professional racing, she turned to coaching, and also started working for USA Triathlon on the Collegiate Recruitment Program. We discuss training and overall performance in triathlon from both an elite and age-group perspective.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Setting up the world-renowned collegiate recruitment program and the reasons for its success
• High performance triathlon now and then – what has changed in the last 15-20 years in training and racing?
• Long-term athletic development for elite athletes and for age-group athletes
• Things that age-groupers tend to underestimate, and on the flipside, over-value
• Fitting triathlon into life, and not life around triathlon for age-group triathletes

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Balancing the art and the science of endurance training with Susan Sotir, PhD | EP#167

Susan Sotir coaches with Breakthrough Performance Coaching, has a PhD in Sport and Exercise Psychology and is an assistant professor at Springfield College. We discuss the importance of balancing the art and science of coaching to develop better athletes, and how leaning to heavily on one side can be costly if you’re after improved performance.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Why and how to balance the art and science of coaching or triathlon training for the self-coached athlete
• Individuality, and why research findings should never be generalised directly to the individual athlete without a good knowledge of the context of this particular athlete
• How lab testing can massively beneficial in optimising and individualising an athlete’s training, when we apply both the art and science of coaching to their training
• How to read research papers the right way, and conduct a critical analysis of the findings within

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Training talk and better triathlon run training with Jason Koop | EP#166

Jason Koop is the Director of Coaching at Carmichael Training Systems (CTS) and a wealth of knowledge and experience in endurance sports coaching. We dive into a wide variety of triathlon training topics in this interview, including getting specific on how to improve your triathlon run training.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• How much (or how little…) fitness should you lose in the off-season?
• Why you must know the purpose of every single workout and block of training
• How should triathletes structure their run training to improve their running?
• Common mistakes triathletes make in their training
• Current fads in triathlon and endurance sports

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Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) in triathlon swimming with Tim Floyd | EP#165

Tim Floyd is a swim coach specializing in triathlon swimming with his squad Magnolia Masters. He has coached both amateur and professional athletes, and over the last few years has used Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) as a cornerstone of his training program.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What is Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) and how can it be used in a triathlon swim training program?
• What are some typical USRPT workouts?
• What is the anecdotal and scientific background of USRPT?
• How could you include USRPT in a typical training week?
• How could you include USRPT over an entire triathlon season?

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How to perform to your potential on race day with Sara McLarty | EP#164

Sara McLarty is a former professional triathlete for Team USA, with a particularly strong swim, coming from a competitive swimming background. Today, she coaches age-groupers as well as travels as a Team Leader with the USA Triathlon Elite National team to ITU World Triathlon Series events.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Preparation for a race
• Going through race morning
• What you should do while standing on the start line and waiting for the gun to go off?
• How should you execute a great swim?
• How should you execute a great bike?
• How should you execute a great run?
• How should you execute two great transitions?

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Interval Training – Science and Application part 3 with prof. Paul Laursen | EP#163

Paul Laursen is adjunct professor and performance physiologist at AUT, he lead the Performance Physiology Team at High Performance Sport New Zealand for both the London and Rio Olympic cycles, and he coaches several elite triathletes. He is also the man behind HIIT Science (together with colleague Martin Bucheit). In his third appearance on That Triathlon Show, we dive even deeper into all things interval training for triathletes, and discuss practical programming applications.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What is the cost in terms of fatigue, recovery time, overall stress, and injury risk of various types of intervals?
• How do factors like age, sex, and athletic ability and experience influence interval training?
• Practical application of HIIT in triathlon programming – what would be some example training weeks for long- and short-course triathletes?
• The HIIT Science book and the course

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How to use HRV to measure and manage Total Load with Simon Wegerif | EP#162

Simon Wegerif is the founder of ithlete, a company that creates sensors and apps related to heart rate variability (HRV). He discusses how triathletes and endurance athletes can use HRV to measure and manage total load – the sum of various different kinds of stress on the body, including mental and physical.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What is total load, and how is it relevant for triathlon training?
• What is the relation between HRV and total load?
• How do we know how much we can or should train, given all the stressors in our lives outside of training?
• Does stress really equal stress, no matter the source of that stress?
• How can age-group triathletes practically use HRV to measure and manage total load?

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Introducing elite triathlete and Scientific Triathlon coach James Teagle | EP#161

James Teagle is an elite triathlete and a Scientific Triathlon coach. In this episode we discuss his own career and training at the Loughborough Triathlon Performance Centre, as well as his coaching and training advice for age-group triathletes.

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Heat, humidity, wind, and slush drinks: cool down your body to go harder for longer with Andrew Buckrell | EP#160

Andrew Buckrell, co-founder of STAC, discusses heat. Our bodies do a great amount of work to get rid of excess heat generated when training, and strategies for maximising the body’s ability to get rid of heat, and minimising heat build-up in the first place, are critical for optimal endurance performance.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• How much heat does our bodies generate in triathlon and how does that impact performance.
• The effect of ambient temperature
• The effect of speed and air flow
• The effect of sweating and humidity
• Strategies for minimising or reducing heat buildup in racing
• Strategies for minimising or reducing heat buildup in training
• What’s the deal with slush drinks?

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